Pregnancy for a Successor - Chapter 34

He extended his palm towards her, and Celia carefully grasped it.

Jingle.

Since it was a bunch of several keys gathered together, she could feel the quite hefty weight in her hand. Unable to understand the intention behind suddenly handing her the key bundle, Celia looked at him with wide eyes.

“These are the keys that can open the rooms in the annex.”

“Why such a thing……”

She already knew that there were many locked places here and there in the annex. The only spaces she used were the bedroom and the adjoining reception room.

“Because it would be boring to be alone in the annex. Wandering around the annex could be quite an interesting thing to do.”

“Is it okay to give me something like this?”

She heard that the annex was specially built for the former Duchess. It would be a place full of memories with his mother, so she couldn’t understand why he was handing over all the keys to this annex.

“Because you’re the owner of this place.”

“…That’s nonsense.”

The owner, he says.

“Why not? Once it’s confirmed that there’s a child, everything in the Duke’s mansion will become yours.”

For a moment, she felt like she was falling into an abyss while standing upside down.

A child.

A child conceived with Hilbert’s seed.

“Then you have the right to have these keys. You can freely use anything inside the rooms that can be opened with those keys.”

“What if I break something?”

“There’s nothing we can do about that.”

At this simple answer, Celia felt like a fool for even asking such a question.

Is he really planning to give her everything in this mansion? If she just gets pregnant, if she just does that, is he planning to acknowledge and accept her as a member of the family, as the mother of the heir?

Even though it was a promise he made directly with his own mouth, she didn’t believe it, but now that she received the heavy key bundle, it made her realize that all his words were true.

“Because the Duchess of Hilbert can go anywhere and do anything.”

“……”

“What’s wrong?”

Eugen asked, looking at the shadowed Celia.

Duchess Hilbert. Eugen’s new mother.

It was the name she would acquire if she safely gave birth to a child.

It was the title of Duchess that she had so desperately wanted, but Celia only felt ominous, as if a cold chill was penetrating a corner of her heart. She was too scared to even look into the source of that emotion.

“I’m just happy.”

Eugen only showed a kind smile at Celia’s answer.

***

Several days had passed since she had thrown the keys there. She didn’t forget that she had left them there. Every time she passed by, it oddly grated on her nerves.

Celia paced in front of it for a long time, and finally picked up the key bundle.

Which room should I open first?

Although she thought she would never use them, now that she held them in her hand, a strange excitement welled up.

Since it was a building that the former Duchess cherished and loved, her prized possessions would be all over the place. She was curious about Eugen’s intentions, saying that he wouldn’t say anything even if she used such things and broke them.

As if he was deliberately telling her to look at something.

“You might be bored being alone, so it would be good to look around here and there.”

Celia swallowed hard at his words, as if he had seen right through her.

“Is it really okay for me to go in?”

“The master gave you the keys. That means he has given permission, so it’s fine to enter as you please.”

After hearing Mrs. Letten’s words, Celia began to waver again.

The thought that she could really use the keys that she intended to just keep made her feel as excited as an explorer setting off on an adventure to an unknown place.

In the first room, there were furnishings that Violetta had used before her marriage. The tablecloth full of floral patterns and furniture were gathered together, reflecting a girl’s taste.

There was a small dressing table and even an intricately made dollhouse. Celia smiled in that space that anyone might dream of at least once.

The next room she entered was, unexpectedly, full of toys.

A baby cradle, a small rocking horse, dolls and toy boxes, all sorts of children’s items were lined up. She had a strong feeling that someone very preciously preserved the things that had been used.

Since it was said that in her lifetime, Eugen was an only child, this playroom was probably the place where Eugen was born and raised.

Seeing all those objects gathered together, Celia felt even stranger. When she tried to imagine young Eugen’s face, it was hard to picture.

What did young Eugen look like? Just imagining it made her feel an inexplicable thrill.

Celia looked around various rooms in the annex, and finally set foot in the last room.

Creak—.

The door opened with a loud hinge sound, as if it hadn’t been opened for a long time. Celia shuddered at the sound, which seemed even more eerie because of the silence all around.

It was similar to the woman’s crying sound she had heard while suffering from high fever after returning from the funeral.

The door was open, but she hesitated to go inside.

Should I close it again?

As Celia held the doorknob, hesitating, Mrs. Letten’s words echoed in her ears.

“The Duke looks just like his mother, Violetta. Raven-black hair, eyes bluer than a clear day’s lake… and skin as white as snow. She was truly like a princess from a fairy tale.”

He strangely didn’t resemble his father at all. Andros’s features and build were all far from Eugen’s. If Mrs. Letten’s words were true, he seemed like a child made entirely of his mother’s blood instead of his father’s.

What kind of person was the woman who passed on such blood to him?

“……”

Celia suddenly changed her mind due to the intense curiosity that washed over her. She decided to go in, since she had come this far.

Celia pushed the door open further and stepped inside. Despite it being broad daylight, the interior was dark. It was because the room was placed on the north side where the sun doesn’t enter, as it was a place to store paintings.

“Ah……”

Celia was momentarily stunned by the scene unfolding before her. The room was full of various portraits. Portraits of past Dukes and Duchesses were hung in order.

In short, it was a room that contained the entire history of the family.

From the innermost to the outermost, as she entered the room filled densely with only portraits, Celia felt her hair stand on end without realizing it.

Although they were just paintings made of paper and paint, it felt like a space that seemed like a tomb. Passing by portraits that must have been painted more than 100 years ago and gradually moving forward, she saw a face that looked somewhat familiar.

Violetta.

That name that was never missing whenever people whispered at the funeral.

The woman in the portrait was, as Mrs. Letten said, beautiful. There were portraits of her wearing elaborate accessories and dresses, and there were also portraits of her painted without any accessories, holding a bouquet of white daisies in a white dress.

“……”

A question arose on Celia’s face as she looked at the portraits for a long time.

It was because the red dress that Violetta was wearing in one of the portraits looked familiar.

It was almost the same, no, exactly the same dress that Anne had worn when she went to the masquerade ball.

Even when Anne was wearing it, she thought it was too luxurious a dress for a maid to wear, but seeing Eugen’s mother wearing the exact same dress in the portrait made her feel strange.

“No way.”

It couldn’t be the same dress. A maid couldn’t carelessly take out and wear the deceased Duchess’s clothing. Aren’t all of Violetta’s belongings locked up in rooms like this with keys?

Pushing away the trivial thought, Celia’s gaze turned to the dog painted under the hem of the red dress.

The puppy playing at her feet gradually became an adult dog in other portraits, then at some point took a posture of crouching on the floor with almost no movement, and finally disappeared from the paintings. As she traced this process with her eyes, Celia let out a light sigh.

“It’s Paul. The dog that Mother had raised since she was young.”

Celia turned around, startled by the voice that suddenly came from behind. The face she met as soon as she turned her head was Eugen’s.

“Wh-when.”

“You were so absorbed that you didn’t even notice when I made a sound.”

“……”

Thinking, ‘Was I like that?’, Celia couldn’t hide her bewildered expression.

“Do you like these paintings?”

Eugen’s eyes scanned his mother’s portraits in order.

“She’s a very beautiful person.”

He gazed intently at Celia.